The Campaign

Looking back at the local realities we realized we are not talking about one Romania, but two. The urban: young, modern but losing touch with their roots and history. And the rural: old, full of tradition, but shrinking. Isolated and forgotten.
We saw an opportunity to connect the two Romanian worlds by doing something only Vodafone’s superior network coverage could achieve: an interactive Facebook live show.
“Live from a different world” is a new entertainment format that connected urban Romanians to the most authentic Romanians alive. These are the elders who were awarded by UNESCO with the status of “Living Human Treasures” for keeping old traditions and values alive.

Creative Execution

“Live. From another world” was a series of 8 episodes livestreamed on Facebook from the most remote places in Romania where the last tradition keepers live.
The show was highly interactive and people from all over the country could connect to the elders from the “other Romania” and engage in a real conversation with them. Even Romanians from abroad got in touch.
The media campaign was a mix of digital (display / programmatic), FB promoted posts and special TV presence and regular TVCs broadcast a few days before the events (to build interest). For the first time we promoted an online show using 20” TV spots on the main TV stations.
The campaign generated media stories and engaged top Romanian celebrities, designers and even Emmy awarded journalists.

Results

Vodafone has connected the two Romanian worlds while proving their network superiority. Vodafone claimed 1st place in public perception of 4G coverage, with a peaking gap of 21% versus Orange, its main competitor.
The show was an online hit that gathered over 2 million participants, becoming a top talk show overpassing even some of the most viewed TV shows.

Romania is a country of contrasts where the young and modern lose touch with their roots, while the old and traditional face oblivion. Vodafone wanted to bring the two Romanian worlds together, in real time, by doing something only their superior network could achieve.
“Live from a different world” is an online interactive talk show, broadcasted live from deep in the Carpathian Mountains, where the last keepers of traditions live so authentic, UNESCO has awarded them status as “living human treasures”. The elders got together with the online generation, answered their questions live and felt valued again.

Usually, our network campaigns were built around the traditional media. But knowing our target’s media behavior, we knew the key for success was laying in media innovation.
The young urban’s Romanian’s lives are happening online. Facebook is where their newsroom, their journal, their social life and their entertainment place are. So this was the natural media for our new show.
So we took this challenge and tried to merge a traditional TV format (talk show) and the type of media our target consumed most (Facebook).
Facebook’s Live feature provided us with the interactivity and engagement potential we needed, and this is how we got to the idea of launching a Live show series. The best support to prove our network leadership.